Hon Dean Nalder BBus GradDip(AppFin&Inv) MLA — Carbon tax removed from Transperth fares

Commuters are encouraged to leave their car at home on Monday, November 3 and take advantage of a free day of public transport.

Transport Minister Dean Nalder said Transperth fares would be reduced from November 1 following the repeal of the carbon tax and a free day of travel offered on November 3 to compensate for fares already charged.

Mr Nalder said removing the carbon tax, imposed by the former Federal Labor Government, would see the cost of some fares fall by between 10 cents and 30 cents.

On July 1, 2012, fares rose by 1.5 per cent more than CPI, factoring in the impact of the tax.

“We committed to removing this tax from fares and making sure that the public was fairly compensated for it, and we are delivering on that commitment,” the Minister said.

“After the repeal of the carbon tax in July this year, I asked the Public Transport Authority to determine a way to remove the carbon tax component of tickets from future fares. So we now have a new fare schedule for Perth and regional towns from November 1.”

Individual fare reductions vary according to the number of zones travelled, how the fare was rounded to the nearest 10 cents, and whether a concession was involved.

For example, standard price fares for two sections and between three and eight zones will drop by 10 cents. Zone one and two standard price fares remain the same but nine zone standard price fares will drop by 30 cents. The same principle is applied to any annual fare increase. If the CPI increment pushes up a fare by less than five cents, the increase is held over.

Mr Nalder said a free day of travel would be offered to further compensate passengers for the four-month period from the carbon tax repeal on July 1 and the fare change on November 1.

Despite the popularity of the SmartRider ticketing system, a significant number of Transperth customers are anonymous users who buy a cash ticket or use an unregistered SmartRider.

“A free day of travel makes more sense because it can be applied fairly to the whole community,” the Minister said.